Edward M. House,

     Pride’s Crossing, Mass.

Letter of third received.  Do you think I could and should act now and if so how?

     Woodrow Wilson.

     Edward M. House to the President

     [Telegram]

     Pride’s Crossing, Mass.

     August 5th, 1914. [Wednesday.]

     The President,

     The White House, Washington, D.C.

Olney[66] and I agree that in response to the Senate resolution it would be unwise to tender your good offices at this time.  We believe it would lessen your influence when the proper moment arrives.  He thinks it advisable that you make a direct or indirect statement to the effect that you have done what was humanly possible to compose the situation before this crisis had been reached.  He thinks this would satisfy the Senate and the public in view of your disinclination to act now upon the Senate resolution.  The story might be told to the correspondents at Washington and they might use the expression “we have it from high authority.”

He agrees to my suggestion that nothing further should be done now than to instruct our different ambassadors to inform the respective governments to whom they are accredited, that you stand ready to tender your good offices whenever such an offer is desired.

     Olney agrees with me that the shipping bill[67] is full of lurking
     dangers.

     E.M.  House.

For some reason, however, the suggested statement was not made.  The fact that Colonel House had visited London, Paris, and Berlin six weeks before the outbreak of war, in an effort to bring about a plan for disarmament, was not permitted to reach the public ear.  Probably the real reason why this fact was concealed was that its publication at that time would have reflected so seriously upon Germany that it would have been regarded as “un-neutral.”  Colonel House, as already described, had found Germany in a most belligerent frame of mind, its army “ready,” to use the Kaiser’s own word, for an immediate spring at France; on the other hand he had found Great Britain in a most pacific frame of mind, entirely unsuspicious of Germany, and confident that the European situation was daily improving.  It is interesting now to speculate on the public sensation that would have been caused had Colonel House’s account of his visit to Berlin been published at that exciting time.

Page’s telegrams and letters show that any suggestion at mediation would have been a waste of effort.  The President seriously forebore, but the desire to mediate was constantly in his mind for the next few months, and he now interested himself in laying the foundations of future action.  Page was instructed to ask for an audience with King George and to present the following document: 

     From the President of the United States
     to His Majesty the King